2 Sisters is top-ranked privately owned food firm

By Gwen Ridler

- Last updated on GMT

Ranjit Boparan’s 2 Sisters leads the food firms listed in The Sunday Times Top Track 100
Ranjit Boparan’s 2 Sisters leads the food firms listed in The Sunday Times Top Track 100

Related tags Food and drink Cornwall The times

2 Sisters Food Group is the top-ranked food or drink firm in this year’s The Sunday Times list of the 100 private companies in the UK with the biggest sales.

The poultry processor took the ninth spot in this year’s The Sunday Times ​HSBC Top Track 100 list, with £3.1bn worth of sales for the year ending July 2016. Profit for the company was £176M.

The past year saw a number of big changes for 2 sisters, not least its acquisition of turkey processor Bernard Matthews​ in September last year.

2 Sisters has also made a number of investments in its operations, including £10M in its ready meals factory in South Wales, and £27.5M in its south-west England supply chain.

Number of investments

Earlier this year, owners Ranjit Singh and Baljinder Boparan made their way into this year’s The Sunday Times ​rich list in position 227th​.​ The pair were worth £544M, a jump of £114M since last year’s list.

The second-highest ranked food business on the list was fresh prepared foods manufacturer Bakkavor, taking the 28th​ position with sales of £1.7bn last year. Bakkavor’s profit came to £144M.

Bakkavor has held a wave of recruitment drives in the past year, searching for 310 staff since November after experiencing increased demand from its customers.

Bakkavor-owned Cucina Sano was the latest site to hold a recruitment drive​. Head of operations Ben Cooper said: “This is an exciting time for Cucina Sano as we create additional capacity to meet increased customer demand.”

Third-highest ranked

Samworth Brothers was the third-highest ranked privately-owned food or drink business on this year’s Top Track 100 list, ranked 64th​ with sales of £910M for 2015 – its latest recorded annual figures. Profit for Samworth came to £85M.

January saw Samworth acquire the West Cornish Pasty Company for an undisclosed sum,​ expanding the manufacturer’s pasty market share in Britain.

Samworth also featured in this year’s The Sunday Times​ Rich List, with Sir David Samworth and his family ranking 215th​ in the annual list of the 1,000 richest people in the UK.

William Grant & Sons was the only drinks firm to appear on this year’s Top Track 100, taking the 66th​ position and the fourth-highest ranked privately-owned food or drink firm. The spirits distiller entered this year’s list with sales of £883M and a profit of £187M.

Meanwhile, food and drink manufacturers were recognised in a list of the top 200 UK businesses with the fastest growing international sales, featured in our photogallery​.

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